Alex Rodriguez was one of the faces of baseball’s Steroid Era, and now he doesn’t want a fellow ballplayer to be the face of the next one.
Speaking during Sunday night’s Yankees-Red Sox “Kay-Rod Cast,” A-Rod said that he wishes young players like Tatis would learn from his “stupidity,” and not make the same PED mistakes he did throughout the course of his career.
A-Rod was handed the longest suspension in baseball history, as he was served a 211-game ban from baseball for his role in the Biogensis PED scandal in the early 2010s. His suspension was ultimately reduced to 162 games, and he missed most of the
MORE: Fernando Tatis Jr.’s father offers bizarre explanation of failed drug test
David Ortiz, who had tested positive for a substance that was later banned by MLB in the early 2000s, also weighed in on the subject, with a little bit different of an angle. Ortiz says that the league needs to be a bit more gentle in its handling of PED suspensions, as to not to damage the player or the “product,” per MLB reporter Hector Gomez:
“MLB needs to have some regulations before they made public news like the one that happened to Tatis Jr,” Ortiz saaid, via Hector Gomez.
Tatis’ suspension was handled in the same manner that most drug suspensions in recent years: A short press release from MLB and that’s about it. Despite Tatis’ pleas that he unknowingly took Clostebol, a banned substance, MLB still handed him the suspension, so maybe Ortiz’s critiques are more about the process of the suspension than the delivery of which.
Whatever the case may be, hopefully Tatis heeds A-Rod’s warnings — and maybe MLB is listening, too.
